The invention relates to an apparatus for reproducing a color television signal which is recorded on a record carrier, which signal includes a first carrier which is frequency modulated by the luminance information and a chrominance carrier which is modulated by the chrominance information in accordance with the PAL standard, and whose frequency is lying between zero and the lower first-order side band of the modulated first carrier which corresponds to the highest modulation frequency, which apparatus comprises a first chrominance circuit with a first mixing stage, to which mixing stage the modulated chrominance carrier which is read from the record carrier and a first mixing signal are applied, which first mixing signal has a frequency whose spacing relative to the standard chrominance carrier frequency equals the chrominance carrier frequency, and a first output terminal to which a first standard chrominance signal on the standard chrominance carrier frequency is applied and which is delivered by the output of the first mixing stage.
Such an apparatus is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,803,347. The signal coding described in said application, where the chrominance information is transposed from the frequency band around the standard chrominance carrier frequency, which is occupied in the case of the standard color television signal, to a lower frequency, has the advantage that for recording a comparatively small bandwidth suffices without giving rise to impermissible quality restrictions. It will be obvious that said coding is essential when recording on magnetic tape via simple equipment, the available bandwidth then also being limited in view of the desired band limitation. Also in the case of other recording media, including disk-shaped optically readable media, such a bandwidth limiting code fills a need and may therefore be used with advantage.
With such record carriers it is generally possible to reproduce the video information which is recorded on the record carrier at a speed other than the recording speed. It is for example known to realize a stationary picture by repeatedly scanning a certain track portion on the record carrier, which track portion for example contains exactly one television picture. This is of special importance in said disk-shaped record carrier which employs optical reading, because in this case the scanning point may be displaced arbitrarily without any wear of the record carrier. If such a disk-shaped record carrier contains a spiral track on which one television picture is recorded per revolution, a stationary picture may be obtained in a simple manner, for example by moving the scanning point back by one track distance in a radial direction upon each revolution of the record carrier, so that the track portion just read is scanned again.
The above does not present any problems as regards the luminance information. However, this is not so in respect of the color in the case of reproduction in accordance with the PAL system. Since a complete picture comprises an odd number of lines, this means that when realizing a stationary picture in the manner described above, the phase alternation in the chrominance signal which is required at the transition from the last line of a certain picture to the first line of the same picture does not occur, resulting in an incorrect chrominance information. Thus, a stationary colour television picture suitable for reproduction in accordance with the PAL system cannot readily be realized in the said manner.